May 4, 2014

The Medieval Dancing Plague, When Getting Down Literally Killed You

The dancing plague all started when a woman identified only as Frau Troffea stepped out of her house

in early July 1518 and began dancing. After nearly a week of the woman’s nonstop flailing, a group of about 30 people had joined her. Reports say that as many as 400 people eventually began dancing in the street, but it was hardly the celebration imagined by Martha & the Vandellas in their 1964 hit song of that title. The melee continued for more than two months, causing people to drop over from heart attacks, strokes and exhaustion.

Your Say

Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I must rise on this occasion and call attention to a phenomenon first manifested in Middle Age towns in France and some suggest in Salem Massachusetts. Other notation can be found at this link (which I hope Gerard's spambots allow):http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/lsd/lsd.htm

Ever hear of ergot? Um maybe yeah. I will quote excerpts from the article which link I provided. I am not that smart so I borrow the words of others: "Ergot of rye is produced by a lower fungus (Claviceps purpurea) that grows parasitically on rye and, to a lesser extent, on other species of grain and on wild grasses. Kernels infested with this fungus develop into light-brown to violet-brown curved pegs (sclerotia) that push forth from the husk in place of normal grains."

Early examples of the hallucinogen which synthesized as LSD. Peasants in France, maybe the Salem witch hunters, probably the poor folks dancing themselves to death as mentioned in the article all beheld Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

BTW, Timothy Leary and his companions tried to take credit for that which was first synthesized in 1938. He deserves a stereo-diamond-dripping-laced-with-belladonna punch in the face. All of them. Faces that is. Or was it punches? or maybe ... quick, hand me down my thorazine, I gots the drifting blues ...

There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance

A planet of play things
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
'The stars aren't aligned
Or the gods are malign...'
Blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill